Manufacturers of sheets or panels having specular surfaces and formed into various curved shapes for use in a variety of manufactured products, such as automobiles, are interested in measuring the shape of the formed panel in order to make various assessments of the characteristics of the panels, such as, for example, conformity of the actual formed shape to design specification, and/or evaluating the amount of optical distortion in the formed sheets that might be perceived by a human observer.
Thus, it is desirous for at least the above purposes to develop a system and method for quickly acquiring data corresponding to the surface of a curved panel, particularly as the panel is being transported on a conveyor between or after assembly or other processing operations, and thereafter developing an accurate three-dimensional mathematical description of the surface of the panel.